Semiconductor integrated circuit device

ABSTRACT

A semiconductor integrated circuit device includes plural circuit units each having plural logic circuits; and plural power terminals supplying power source from outside to the semiconductor integrated circuit device, in which the plural circuit units each having plural logic circuits have common packaging design with each other, and lengths in a vertical direction and a lateral direction of the circuit units each having plural logic circuits are equal to an even multiple of a distance between the power terminals adjacent to each other.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a U.S. continuation application filed under 35 USC111(a) claiming benefit under 35 USC 120 and 365(c) of PCT applicationJP2007/069705, filed Oct. 9, 2007. The foregoing application is herebyincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The embodiment discussed herein is related to a semiconductor integratedcircuit device.

BACKGROUND

Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-22510 discloses asemiconductor integrated circuit device capable of facilitating thelayout and disposing power source wiring and electrodes by repeatedlydisposing power supply block cells. Specifically, a CCB bump (a powersource electrode) is disposed at the center of power supply block cells,and CCB bumps for signals are disposed at the four corners. That is,both the CCB bump and the CCB bumps for signals are orderly disposed onthe principal surface of semiconductor chips in such a manner that theconsistency is maintained with the layout of the basic cells. Whenpreparing the basic cell, a basic circuit region having a plurality ofMIS.FETs required for forming one basic circuit is prepared, and aplurality of regions are laid out in mirror symmetry with apredetermined power supply wiring disposed above the basic cell as aborder. By doing this, the disposing and laying out of semiconductorelements forming the basic cell can be performed more easily, man-hoursfor laying and disposing can be reduced thereby shortening the layingand disposing time.

Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications No. 11-250700 disclosesa memory mixed semiconductor integrated circuit device in which a testcircuit for operating the efficient test of a large-scaled memory macroby a few terminals for test is incorporated. Specifically, a memorymacro is mixed with a logic part, and provided with a test circuit fordecoding a coded input signal for test supplied to an input terminal fortest for testing the memory macro, and test-operating the memory macrowithout the logic part. The test circuit is provided with a signalgenerating circuit for decoding a coded memory control signal amonginput signals, and selectively performing direct access to the memorymacro according to the memory control signal and non-coded addresssignal and data signal for executing the test operation, and a controlcircuit for decoding a coded memory macro activation signal and a memorymacro selection signal among input signals for test, and selectivelyactivating the signal generating circuit.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the present invention, a semiconductorintegrated circuit device is capable of improving the efficiency ofpackaging design without affecting the packaging efficiency.

Further, according to an aspect of the present invention, asemiconductor integrated circuit device includes plural units (i.e.,circuit units such as cache memories) each having plural logic circuits,and plural power terminals supplying a power source from outside to thesemiconductor integrated circuit device, in which the plural units eachhaving plural logic circuits have common packaging design with eachother, and lengths in a vertical direction and a lateral direction ofthe units each having plural logic circuits are equal to an evenmultiple of a distance between the power terminals adjacent to eachother.

The object and advantages of the invention will be realized and attainedby means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out inthe claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and arenot restrictive of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top view illustrating an example of packaging design of asemiconductor integrated circuit device;

FIG. 2 is a drawing illustrating a problem which may occur in aconventional semiconductor integrated circuit device;

FIG. 3 is an oblique perspective view illustrating an example ofpackaging design of a semiconductor integrated circuit device;

FIG. 4 is another drawing illustrating a problem which may occur in aconventional semiconductor integrated circuit device;

FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic comparison of a configuration of aconventional semiconductor integrated circuit device (FIG. 5A) and anexemplary configuration of a semiconductor integrated circuit deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention (FIG. 5B);

FIG. 6 illustrates exemplary circuit diagrams which may be included in aclock generator of a cache memory in a semiconductor integrated circuitdevice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates another schematic comparison of a configuration of aconventional semiconductor integrated circuit device (FIG. 7A) and anexemplary configuration of a semiconductor integrated circuit deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention (FIG. 7B);

FIG. 8 is a top view illustrating an exemplary configuration of asemiconductor integrated circuit device according to an embodiment ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 9 is another top view illustrating an exemplary configuration of asemiconductor integrated circuit device according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT

Conventionally, in a typical flow of a packaging design operation of asemiconductor integrated circuit, due to limited development resources,to effectively perform the packaging design operation of thesemiconductor integrated circuit device as much as possible, afundamental logic circuit block is designed first and so-called a flipdevelopment is performed on the logic circuit block. In the figures,symbols are used to denote

FIG. 1 is a top view illustrating an example of semiconductor integratedcircuit.

In the figures, the following symbols are used and are defined asfollows: FD: flip development, BLK: block, CM: cache memory, SC:standard cell, BP: bump pitch, VSS-B: VSS bump, VDD-B: VDD bump, PIN-A:pin A, PIN-B: pin B, PIN-C: pin C, Pin-D: pin D, WP: wiring pattern,MCA: memory cell array, CG: clock generator, and DEC: decoder etc.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the semiconductor integrated circuit deviceincludes blocks 1 and 2 as logic circuit blocks, and each block includessix cache memories. Further, in this case of FIG. 1, it is assumed thatthose six cache memories have similar packaging design with each other,thereby facilitating the packaging design.

Herein, the flip development refers to as an operation of copyingpackaging design so that laterally symmetric packaging design can beformed as exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 1. In the case of FIG. 1, thepackaging design of the block 1 having six cache memories is copied toform the packaging design of the block 2 so that the packaging design ofthe blocks 1 and 2 are bilaterally symmetric with each other. Byrepeating the flip development, the whole floor plan is provided.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary relationship between bumps formed in anupper layer of the semiconductor integrated circuit device having theconfiguration of FIG. 1 and the cache memories included in thesemiconductor integrated circuit device. Further, FIG. 3 obliquelyillustrates an example of an arrangement of the bumps and a structure ofpower source patterns in such a semiconductor integrated circuit device.

This configuration illustrated in FIG. 3 corresponds to, for example,one of the six cache memories in FIG. 2.

The bump refers to an electrode to supply power source to thesemiconductor integrated circuit device from an external power sourceand may also be called a power source terminal.

In FIG. 2, a relationship is described between one of the six cachememories in the block 1 and the positions of the bumps formed on anupper layer. In FIG. 2, symbols VSS and VDD denote the positions of VSSbumps and VDD bumps, respectively. The VSS bump and the VDD bump referto a power source (i.e., positive) terminal and a ground (i.e.,negative) terminal, respectively. Further, as illustrated in FIG. 2, adistance corresponding to a position interval of the VSS bump and theVDD bump adjacent to each other refers to a bump pitch.

Further, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, the VDD bumps and the VCCbumps, which are different in type from each other, are alternatelyarranged one after another so that the same type of the bumps (e.g., theVDD bumps or the VCC bumps) are not adjacent to each other. This isbecause the positive terminal and the negative terminal are required tobe formed in a mutually corresponding manner to supply a power source.

FIG. 3 illustrates the positions of the VSS bumps B11 through B14 andthe VDD bumps B21 through B25 formed on an upper layer of the block andthe positions of VSS power source patterns P11 through P15 and VDD powersource patterns P21 through P25 formed on a lower layer.

In the corresponding figures, the VSS bumps and the VDD bumps aredepicted as circles on the uppermost layer of the block; and the VSSpower source patterns and the VDD power source patterns are depicted aselongated belt-like patterns extending in the vertical and lateraldirections in the lowermost layer of the block.

The VSS bumps and the VDD bumps are electrically connected to the VSSpower source patterns and the VDD power source patterns, respectively,through vias or the like. By having this configuration, an externalpower source is supplied to the VSS power source patterns and the VDDpower source patterns through the VSS bumps and the VDD bumps, the VSSpower source patterns and the VDD power source patterns being formed onthe lowermost layer of the block and the VSS bumps and the VDD bumpsbeing formed on the upper most layer of the block.

As schematically illustrated in FIG. 3, plural VSS power source patternsand plural VDD power source patterns of the semiconductor integratedcircuit device are formed (disposed) at regular intervals correspondingto the VSS bumps and the VDD bumps on the uppermost layer.

On the other hand, in a design process of the cache memories and thelike to be formed on a layer lower than that on which the VSS powersource patterns and the VDD power source patterns are formed, it isgenerally intended to reduce the size of each cache memory as much aspossible to reduce the chip area of the semiconductor integrated circuitdevice.

This design method may be effective in the viewpoint of reducing thearea of each cache memory.

However, when this design method is simply employed, as exemplarilyillustrated in FIG. 2, the size of each cache memory may not match withthe bump pitch of the VSS bumps and the VDD bumps on the uppermostlayer.

More specifically, as exemplarily illustrated in the middle left-handcache memory of block 1 in FIG. 2, the lengths in the vertical andlateral directions of the cache memory are longer than three times thebump pitch and shorter than four times the bump pitch. Furthermore, asillustrated in FIG. 2, four VSS bumps (corresponding to the rectanglesin which “VSS” is indicated) and five VDD bumps (corresponding to therectangles in which “VDD” is indicated) belong to the cache memory.

FIG. 4 is a top view illustrating the cache memories C1 and C2 includedin the semiconductor integrated circuit device. Further, in theconfiguration of FIG. 4, the power source patterns are disposed atregular intervals.

Next, the relationships between the power source patterns in cachememories C1 and C2 and the power source patterns illustrated in FIG. 3are described.

In FIG. 3, for the purposes of facilitating the understanding of therelationship between the bumps on the upper layer and the power sourcepatterns, a case is described where two power source patterns areprovided for each of the bumps. More specifically, in the case of FIG.3, the VSS bump B14 corresponds to two VSS power source patterns P11 andP12; and VDD bump B24 corresponds to two VDD power source patterns P21and P22.

On the other hand, generally, more than two power source patterns arecorresponded to a single bump. Similar to the case of FIG. 3, in theexample illustrated in FIG. 4, two power source patterns arecorresponded (connected) to a single bump B. Further, in the example ofFIG. 4, each of the VSS power source patterns and the VDD power sourcepatterns is depicted as an elongated belt-like pattern extending in theupper and lower (vertical) direction in the figure. Further, in FIG. 4,which is similar to FIG. 3, the half-toned bumps B represent the VSSbump and the bumps B without half-toned pattern represent the VDD bumps.

Further, in FIG. 4, pins A, B, C, and D represent input/output terminalsof the logic circuit block formed on a layer lower than that on whichthe power source patterns are formed. To electrically connect the pinsA, B, C, and D to the outside of the semiconductor integrated circuitdevice, as described in FIG. 4, wiring patterns P151, P152, P153, andP154 extending in the vertical direction in FIG. 4 are provided so as tobe connected to the pins A, B, C, and D, respectively.

In this case, when a terminal inside the cache memory is required to beconnected to the outside of the cache memory using a wiring, the wiringmay be required to be formed so as not to be in contact with any of theVSS power source patterns P111 and P112 and the VDD power sourcepatterns P121 and P122 and the like.

Further, in a case where the flip development is performed on the blockof the logic circuit to effectively perform the packaging designoperation, it may be required to consider that any of the VSS powersource patterns and the VDD power source patterns on the upper layerdoes not short-circuit with any of the wirings connecting between theterminals inside the cache memories and the outside of the cachememories. To that end, it may be desirable that the wirings are disposedin a manner such that the relative positions of the wirings with respectto the VSS power source patterns and the VDD power source patterns onthe upper layer are constant (common) in each cache memory, the wiringsconnecting between the terminals inside the cache memories and theoutside of the cache memories.

However, for example, in the case where the lengths in the vertical andlateral directions of the cache memory are longer than three times thebump pitch and shorter than four times the bump pitch as illustrated inFIG. 2, relative positions of the VSS bumps and the VDD bumps on theupper layer with respect to the respective cache memories on the lowerlayer may vary depending on the cache memories. In this case, asillustrated in FIG. 4, the relative positions of the VSS power sourcepatterns and the VDD power source patterns on the upper layer withrespect to the cache memory C1 may differ from that with respect to thecache memory C2.

More specifically, in the example of FIG. 4, in the cache memory C1,there are VSS power source pattern P111 and VDD power source patternP121 on the left-hand side of the pins A and B. On the other hand, inthe cache memory C2, the VSS power source pattern P111, the VDD powersource pattern P121, and the pins A and B are also provided similar tothe cache memory C1. However, the VSS power source pattern P111 and theVDD power source pattern P121 in the cache memory C2 are more shifted tothe left-hand side from the pins A and B when compared with the case ofcache memory C1.

Further, as described above, the plural VSS power source patterns andthe plural VDD power source patterns are formed at regular intervals.Because of this feature, in the cache memory C2, the VSS power sourcepattern Pill and the VDD power source pattern P121 on the right-handside of the pins A and B are also more shifted to the left-hand sidethan in the case of the cache memory C1. In this state, if the samewiring pattern as that formed in the cache memory C1 is formed(disposed) in the cache memory C2 and vice verse, a problem may occur.

More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 4, in the cache memory C1, thewiring patterns P151 and P152 are bent in L shape near the bottom end ofthe cache memory C1, so that the patterns are shifted to the right-handside. However, if the wiring patterns P151 and P152 bent to theright-hand side in the cache memory C1 are applied to the wiringpatterns P161 and P162 in the same manner in the cache memory C2, as maybe apparent from FIG. 4, the wiring pattern P162 from pin B may be incontact with (i.e., may short-circuit with) the adjacent VSS powersource pattern P112. Therefore, in this state, to avoid the contact, asillustrated in FIG. 4 and unlike the case of the cache memory C1, thewiring patterns P161 and P162 are bent in L shape near the bottom end ofthe cache memory C2, so that the patterns are shifted to the left-handside. Therefore, in such a case described above, it may become necessaryto perform different packaging design with respect to each cache memory,which may degrade the efficiency of the total packaging designoperation.

Next, embodiments of the present invention is described with referenceto the accompanying drawings.

In the above description, a case is described with reference to FIG. 2where the lengths in the vertical and lateral directions of the cachememory are longer than three times the bump pitch and shorter than fourtimes the bump pitch, which may cause a problem of degradation of theefficiency of the total packaging design.

On the other hand, according to an embodiment of the present invention,a packaging design of the cache memories is performed in a manner suchthat the lengths in the vertical and lateral directions of the cachememory are equal to an even multiple of (e.g., four times) the bumppitch.

By performing the packaging design operation in this way, the relativepositions of the VSS bumps and the VDD bumps on the upper layer withrespect to the cache memories may not differ from each other and maybecome similar to each other. Therefore, the problem described above maybe resolved. More specifically, by performing the packaging designoperation in this way, it may become unnecessary to perform packagingdesign operation on each cache memory; that is, the packaging designdata of one cache memory may also be applied to the other cache memorieswithout changing the packaging design data (i.e., without necessity ofperforming additional packaging design operation to modify the packagingdesign data for other cache memories).

However, if the lengths in the vertical and lateral directions of thecache memory are equal to an odd multiple of the bump pitch, thefollowing problem may occur.

As described above, in the semiconductor integrated circuit device,there are required two types of bumps, which are the bump for the powersource side (i.e., the VDD bump) and the bump for the ground side (I.e.,the VSS bump). This may be obvious because both positive and negativeelectrodes (terminals) are required to supply power source to thesemiconductor integrated circuit device.

Next, a case is described in more detail where the lengths in thevertical and lateral directions of the cache memory are equal to an oddmultiple of (in this case, as an example, three times) the bump pitch.In this case, as described above, four VSS bumps and five VDD bumps maybelong to some of the cache memories. As a result, the number of the VSSbumps is not equal to the number of the VDD bumps. However, as describedabove, the VDD bump and the VCC bump are to be used as a pair;therefore, it may be required that the number of the VSS bumps is to beequal to the number of the VDD bumps in each of the cache memories.

On the other hand, according to an embodiment of the present invention,as described above, the lengths in the vertical and lateral directionsof the cache memory are equal to an even multiple of the bump pitch. Forexample, by performing the packaging design operation in a manner suchthat the lengths in the vertical and lateral directions of the cachememory are equal to four times the bump pitch, the number of VSS bumpsmay be equal to the number of the VDD bumps in each of the cachememories.

Further, in this case where the lengths in the vertical and lateraldirections of the cache memory are equal to an even multiple of the bumppitch, it is not always necessary that the same even number of timessuch as four times are applied to both the vertical direction and thelateral directions of the cache memory. In other words, different evennumber of times, for example, four times and six times, may beseparately applied to the vertical direction and the lateral directions,respectively, of the cache memories. This is because, even in such acase, the number of VSS bumps may be equal to the number of the VDDbumps in each of the cache memories.

In the following, an embodiment of the present inventions is furtherdescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. Further, theembodiment of the present invention is described by illustrating thecache memory as an example.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in a packagingdesign operation of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, byenlarging an area of the cache memory, the lengths in the vertical andlateral directions of the cache memory may be adjusted to be equal to aneven multiple (i.e., 2n, herein a symbol “n” denotes an integer greaterthan zero) of the bump pitch. Further, a typical logic circuit such as alogic circuit having a repeated pattern, a test circuit and the like maybe included (integrated) in the cache memories.

According to this embodiment of the present invention, by integrating atypical logic circuit such as a logic circuit having a repeated pattern,a test circuit and the like in the cache memories of the semiconductorintegrated circuit, the lengths in the vertical and lateral directionsof the cache memory may be adjusted to be equal to 2n of the bump pitch.As a result, it may become possible to remove a wasteful dead spacewhich may be created in a block of a basic circuit generated in ahigh-level design operation.

As a result, after the flip development is performed on the block of thebasic circuit in the high-level design operation, it may becomeunnecessary to separately design the relative positions of the wiringswith respect to the power source patterns on the upper layer, thewirings being connecting between the terminals inside the cache memoriesand the outside of the cache memories; and further, it may becomepossible to repeatedly use packaging design data of one cache memory tobe applied to the other cache memories, which may remarkably improve theefficiency of the packaging design operation.

Further, by integrating a standard cell area in the cache memory, it maybecome possible to reduce the necessity of creating a new site outsidethe cache memory, thereby enabling to control the gaps between the cachememories. As a result, it may become possible to improve the packagingdensity of the entire chip of the semiconductor integrated circuitdevice.

Further, by adjusting the lengths (size) in the vertical and lateraldirections of the cache memory to be equal to 2n of the bump pitch, thecache memories having the adjusted size may have an extra space. Then,by using the extra space, each area of the blocks of the basic circuitsin the cache memory may be enlarged. As a result, the packaging designoperation based on the study of DFM (Design for Manufacturing) may beperformed, thereby enabling to extend the distances between thepositions of transistors and the distances between the signal wirings toreduce the capacitance between the signal wirings. Therefore, it maybecome possible to provide a cache memory having more tolerance againstnoise and increase the yield rate of the semiconductor integratedcircuit device.

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a comparison between a configuration ofa conventional semiconductor integrated circuit device (FIG. 5A) and anexemplary configuration of a semiconductor integrated circuit deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention (FIG. 5B).

Namely, FIG. 5A illustrates a conventional cache memory C11 where noembodiments of the present invention are applied. As illustrated in FIG.5A, the cache memory C11 includes blocks of basic circuits as maincircuits including memory cell arrays 11 and 13, a clock generator 15,input/output circuits 14 and 16 serving as an interface to the outsideof the cache memory C11, and a control circuit 12 having functions suchas an address decoder.

Accordingly, FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary circuit configuration ofthe cache memory C11, the circuit configuration being formed byperforming packaging design operation in which an emphasis is mainlyplaced on packaging efficiency to minimize the packaging area).

In this case, as illustrated in FIG. 5A, the lengths (size) in thevertical and lateral directions of the cache memory may not be equal to2n of the bump pitch. Because of this feature, it may become necessaryto separately perform packaging design operation with respect to each ofthe cache memories, thereby degrading the efficiency of the packagingdesign operation.

On the other hand, FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary circuitconfiguration of the cache memory C21 in a semiconductor integratedcircuit device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 5B, the packaging design operation of the cachememory C21 is performed in a manner such that the lengths (size) in thevertical and lateral directions of the cache memory are equal to 2n ofthe bump pitch. As a result, it may become possible to improve theefficiency of the packaging design operation.

As illustrated in FIG. 5B, the lengths (size) in the vertical andlateral directions of the cache memory are adjusted to be equal to 2n ofthe bump pitch by enlarging the areas of the blocks of the basiccircuits in the cache memory C11 illustrated in FIG. 5A.

As illustrated in FIG. 5B, similar to the cache memory C11 of FIG. 5A,the cache memory C21 includes blocks of basic circuits as main circuitsincluding memory cell arrays 21 and 23, a clock generator 25,input/output circuits 24 and 26 serving as an interface to the outsideof the cache memory C21, and a control circuit 22 such as an addressdecoder. This configuration of the blocks of the basic circuits issimilar to that of the cache memory C11 of FIG. 5A. However, the sizesof the areas of the blocks of the basic circuits of the cache memory C21in FIG. 5B are larger than the respective areas of the blocks of thebasic circuits of the cache memory C11 in FIG. 5A.

One of the methods of enlarging the areas of the blocks of the basiccircuits is to extend the distances between the transistors and thedistances between the signal wirings. In a general packaging designoperation, the transistors, signal wirings and the like may be disposedin a manner such that the size of the cache memories can be minimizedbased on the minimum rule of MDR (Mask Design Rule). However, in thisembodiment of the present invention, as described above, the packagingdesign operation is performed in a manner such that the lengths (size)in the vertical and lateral directions of the cache memory are adjustedto be equal to 2n of the bump pitch by enlarging the block areas of thebasic circuits in the cache memories. By performing the packaging designoperation in this way, the cache memories may have an extra space. Then,by using the extra space, it may become possible to extend the distancesbetween the positions of transistors and the distances between thesignal wirings.

As a result, it may become possible to reduce the capacitance betweenthe signal wirings in the cache memories, thereby enabling to producecache memories having more tolerance against noise. Namely, thepackaging design operation based on the study of DFM (Design forManufacturing) may be performed, thereby enabling to increase the yieldrate of the semiconductor integrated circuit device.

Another exemplary method of enlarging the areas of the blocks of thebasic circuits may be to add a timing adjusting circuit 51B, a dummytransistor circuit 51E for chip update, a test circuit 51C asillustrated in FIGS. 6B through 6D or the like to the clock generator15.

FIG. 6( a) illustrates a clock generator 25 including duty (or clocksignal phase) adjustment circuits 51A and 51D. The duty adjustmentcircuits 51A and 51D receive a main clock signal CLK from outside of thecache memory and distribute the received clock signal CLK to the otherblocks of the basic circuits in the cache memory. To that end, asillustrated in FIG. 6( a), the duty adjustment circuits 51A and 51Dprovide a function to adequately adjust the clock signal phase or dutyby using the functions of inverter circuits INV connected in series anda NAND circuit NAND.

Recently, with miniaturization of the packaging structure ofsemiconductor integrated circuit devices, variation of manufacturing ofthe transistors may become a serious problem. Especially, in the cachememories of the semiconductor integrated circuit devices, there may becases where it is difficult to adequately adjust the timing within thecache memory. Therefore, in the worst case, it may be supposed that thecache memory does not operate normally due to the variation ofmanufacturing of the transistors.

In contrast, by using the extra space obtained by enlarging the areas ofthe blocks of the basic circuits in the cache memory, the timingadjusting circuit 51B may be added to the clock generator 15 toadequately adjust the timing of the clock signal to the cache memory. Byadding the timing adjusting circuit 51B in this way, it may becomepossible to perform fine timing adjustment in the cache memory, therebyenabling to produce a cache memory having higher tolerance against thevariation of manufacturing.

FIG. 6( b) illustrates an exemplary circuit configuration of the timingadjusting circuit 51B.

As illustrated in FIG. 6( b), the timing adjusting circuit 51B is madeof a combination of inverter circuits INV and pass transistors PAS. Bythe switching control of the pass transistors PAS, the number of seriesof inverters constituting the timing adjusting circuit 51B can bedetermined. By doing this, a delay amount of the signal to be outputfrom the timing adjusting circuit 51B may be determined.

Otherwise, by using the extra space obtained by enlarging the areas ofthe blocks of the basic circuits in the cache memory, the dummytransistor circuit 51E may be added to the clock generator 15 to updatethe chip of the semiconductor integrated circuit device. By adding thedummy transistor circuit 51E in this way, when the chip of thesemiconductor integrated circuit device is faulty due to a fault in acache memory, it may become possible to update the chip of thesemiconductor integrated circuit device by changing wiring patternsbetween transistors and the like (a.k.a. metal update) without changingthe positions of the transistors and the like (a.k.a. bulk update);thereby enabling to remarkably reduce the cost to update the chip.

FIG. 6( c) illustrates an exemplary circuit configuration of the dummytransistor circuit 51E.

As illustrated in FIG. 6( c), the dummy transistor circuit 51E includesplural inverters connected in series with each other. By changing thewiring patterns between transistors and the like (performing the metalupdate), the dummy transistor circuit 51E may be added to the duty (orclock signal phase) adjustment circuit 51D. By adding the dummytransistor circuit 51E in this way, it may become possible to change thewaveform of the clock signal generated by the duty (or clock signalphase) adjustment circuit 51D. As a result, by updating the chip in thisway, it may become possible to update a faulty chip by removing thecause of the trouble.

Otherwise, by using the extra space obtained by enlarging the areas ofthe blocks of the basic circuits in the cache memory, the test circuit51C may be added to the clock generator 15. By adding the test circuit51C in this way, it may become possible to conduct a test of the cachememory by using the added test circuit 51C.

FIG. 6( d) illustrates an exemplary circuit configuration of the testcircuit 51C.

As illustrated in FIG. 6( d), the test circuit 51C is made of acombination of the inverter circuits INV and the pass transistors PAS.By the switching control of the pass transistors PAS based on anexternally-supplied test signal TEST, the number of series of invertersconstituting the test circuit 51C can be determined. By doing this, adelay amount of the signal to be output from the test circuit 51C may bedetermined. By using this feature, it may become possible to test theoperations of the circuits in response to various delay amounts.

Further, in the case where the areas of the blocks of the basic circuitsin the cache memories are enlarged so that the lengths (size) in thevertical and lateral directions of the cache memory are adjusted to beequal to 2n of the bump pitch, if the difference in the lengths (size)in the vertical and/or lateral directions of the cache memory betweenbefore the enlargement and after the enlargement exceeds a predeterminedvalue (e.g., approximately 100 μm), the lengths of the wirings betweenthe blocks of the basic circuits become longer; and as a result, a delayamount during the operations of the cache memory may be increased.

In such a case, instead of simply enlarging the areas of the blocks ofthe basic circuits in the cache memory so that the lengths (size) in thevertical and lateral directions of the cache memory are adjusted to beequal to 2n of the bump pitch, the following method may be employed.

As illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B, in addition to enlarging the areas ofthe blocks of the basic circuits in the cache memory in the methoddescribed above, a standard cell like a repeater which is not expressed(configured) using complicated logic circuits may be integrated(included) in the cache memory.

As illustrated in FIG. 7B, similar to the cache memory C11 of FIG. 7A,the cache memory C31 includes blocks of basic circuits as main circuitsincluding memory cell arrays 31 and 33, a clock generator 35,input/output circuits 34 and 36, and a control circuit 32 havingfunctions such as an address decoder. This configuration of the blocksof the basic circuits are similar to that of the cache memory C11 ofFIG. 7A. However, as illustrated in FIG. 7B, the sizes of the areas ofthe blocks of the basic circuits of the cache memory C31 in FIG. 7B arelarger than those of the cache memory C11 in FIG. 7A by a predeterminedamount.

In addition to that, in the case of FIG. 7B, a standard cell area 37 isprovided in which a standard cell is added in the cache memory C31. As aresult, as illustrated in FIG. 7B, due to the added standard cell area37, the area of the cache memory C31 may further be enlarged, so thatthe lengths (size) in the vertical and lateral directions of the cachememory are adjusted to be equal to 2n of the bump pitch.

By employing the method illustrated in FIG. 7B, it may become possibleto adjust the lengths (size) in the vertical and lateral directions ofthe cache memory to be equal to 2n of the bump pitch withoutinadequately extending the lengths of the wirings between the blocks ofthe basic circuits in the cache memory.

Further, by employing the method illustrated in FIG. 7B to integrate therepeater-like standard cell area in the cache memory, it may becomepossible to maximally remove the necessity to separately provide a sitesuch as the standard cell area outside the cache memory after the flipdevelopment is performed on the blocks of the basic circuits in thehigh-level design operation. As a result, as illustrated in FIG. 8, itmay become possible to arrange the cache memories closer together,thereby enabling to improve the packaging density of the entire chip ofthe semiconductor integrated circuit device.

As described above, by adjusting the lengths (size) in the vertical andlateral directions of the cache memory to be equal to 2n of the bumppitch by enlarging the areas of the blocks of the basic circuits in thecache memory or by integrating the standard cell in the cache memory, itmay become possible to remove the necessity of separately consideringthe difference in relative positions of the wiring patterns P151 andP152 connecting between the terminals inside the cache memories and theoutside of the cache memories with respect to the power source patternsP111, P121, P112, and P122 on the upper layer with respect to each cachememory. As a result, it may become possible to repeatedly use packagingdesign data of one cache memory to be applied to the other cachememories; which may remarkably improve the efficiency of the packagingdesign operation.

In the case of FIG. 9, the lengths (size) in the vertical and lateraldirections of the cache memories C41 and C42 are adjusted to be equal to2n of the bump pitch, the bumps on the upper layer being disposed in thesame manner for all the cache memories. Further, in FIG. 9, same as thecase in FIG. 4, the half-toned bumps B represent the VSS bumps and thebumps B without half-toned pattern represent the VDD bumps.

In the case where the lengths in the vertical and lateral directions ofthe cache memory are equal to an odd multiple of (in this case, as anexample, three times) the bump pitch, the number of bumps belonging toeach cache memory is nine (3×3=9). In this case, in some cache memories,there are five VDD bumps and four VSS bumps, and in other cache memoriesadjacent to the above cache memories, there are four VDD bumps and fiveVSS bumps. Therefore, the arrangement of the bumps in the cache memoriesmay vary and may not be constant in the same semiconductor integratedcircuit device.

On the other hand, according to an embodiment of the present invention,as described above, the lengths in the vertical and lateral directionsof the cache memory are equal to an even multiple of the bump pitch. Forexample, by performing the packaging design operation in a manner suchthat the lengths in the vertical and lateral directions of the cachememory are equal to four times the bump pitch, the number of the bumpsbelonging to each of the cache memories is sixteen (4×4=16)), and thenumber of the VDD bumps is eight (8) and the number of the VSS bumps isalso eight (8). Further, the arrangement of those bumps becomes constantin all the cache memories. Therefore, for example, in the case of FIG.9, the relative positions of the bumps with respect to the cache memoryC41 and the relative positions of the bumps with respect to the cachememory C42 may become the same. As a result, the arrangement of thepower source patterns, that are disposed lower than the bumps and higherthan the layer where the logic circuits constituting the cache memoriesare formed and that are connected to the bumps B, may become constantbetween cache memories C41 and C42 as illustrated in FIG. 9.

As a result, the relative positions of the pins A, B, C, and D withrespect the power source patterns P111, P121, P112, P122 and the likeformed on an upper layer may become constant between cache memories C41and C42. Therefore, in the packaging design operation of the cachememories C41 and C42, packaging design data of one cache memory may beapplied to the other cache memory without performing the packagingdesign operation with respect to both of the cache memories.

Therefore, it may become possible to repeatedly use packaging designdata of one cache memory to be applied to the other cache memories,thereby enabling to improve the efficiency of the packaging designoperation.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it may becomepossible to effectively reduce the total development man-hours of thesemiconductor integrated circuit devices and costs; and it may becomepossible to design and manufacture products having higher performancesat a higher yield rate in a shorter time period.

In FIGS. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, for the explanatory purposes, the gapsbetween the cache memories may be explicitly expressed. However, theactual gaps between adjacent cache memories, between the cache memoryand the adjacent standard cell area and the like are negligibly smallcompared with the lengths (size) in the vertical and lateral directionsof the cache memories. Because of this feature, the above description“the lengths in the vertical and lateral directions of the cache memoryare adjusted to be equal to an even multiple of the bump pitch” may beregarded as equivalent to the description “when a substrate of asemiconductor integrated circuit device is divided and the areas of thecache memories are allocated, the lengths in the vertical and lateraldirections of the areas to be allocated to the cache memories areadjusted to be equal to an even multiple of the bump pitch”. Then, insuch a configuration, the relative positions of the bumps on an upperlayer with respect to each of the cache memories may become constant.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it may becomepossible to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit capable ofimproving the efficiency of packaging design operation without degradingthe packaging efficiency.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the relativepositions of the bumps on the upper layer with respect to each of thecache memories may become constant while a problem of reducing thepackaging efficiency of the semiconductor integrated circuit device isresolved. Therefore, it may become possible to repeatedly use packagingdesign data of one cache memory to be applied to the other cachememories, thereby enabling to improve the efficiency of the packagingdesign operation.

In the above embodiments, as an example, a case is described where thelengths in the vertical and lateral directions of the cache memory areadjusted to be equal to an even multiple (e.g., four times) of the bumppitch. However, the present invention is not limited to thisconfiguration. For example, the present invention may include aconfiguration in which at least one of the length in the verticaldirection and the length in the lateral direction of the cache memory isadjusted to be equal to an even multiple of the bump pitch.

All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended forpedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the inventionand the concepts contributed by the inventor to furthering the art, andare to be construed as being without limitation to such specificallyrecited examples and conditions, nor does the organization of suchexamples in the specification relate to a showing of the superiority andinferiority of the invention. Although the embodiment(s) of the presentinventions have been described in detail, it should be understood thatvarious changes, substitutions, and alterations could be made heretowithout departing from the sprit and scope of the invention.

1. A semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising: plural unitseach having plural logic circuits; and plural power terminals configuredto supply a power source from outside to the semiconductor integratedcircuit device, wherein the plural units each having plural logiccircuits have common packaging design with each other, and lengths in avertical direction and a lateral direction of the units each havingplural logic circuits are equal to an even multiple of a distancebetween the power terminals adjacent to each other.
 2. The semiconductorintegrated circuit device according to claim 1, wherein each of theplural units each having plural logic circuits includes respective powersource patterns connected to the power terminals, and an even number ofthe power terminals belong to each of the plural units each havingplural logic circuits.
 3. The semiconductor integrated circuit deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein the plural units each having plural logiccircuits are cache memories.
 4. The semiconductor integrated circuitdevice according to claim 3, wherein the cache memory includes at leastone of a logic circuit having a repeated pattern, a test circuit, and astandard cell.
 5. A semiconductor device comprising: plural bumpsarranged at regular intervals; and a cache memory, wherein lengths in avertical direction and a lateral direction of the cache memory are equalto an even multiple of a distance between the bumps adjacent to eachother.
 6. A method of designing a semiconductor device having pluralbumps arranged at regular intervals and a cache memory, the methodcomprising: designing in a manner such that lengths in a verticaldirection and a lateral direction of the cache memory are equal to aneven multiple of a distance between the bumps adjacent to each other.